I was just browsing around randomly and ran across this. Fun stuff:

When you type to UNIX, a gnome deep in the system is gathering your characters and saving them in a secret place. The characters will not be given to a program until you type a return, as described above in Logging in.

I studied under Warren, he's a super-cool prof who knows a lot about his stuff. Also the nerdiest prof I ever had.

Edit: If you want more nice old UNIX-stuff, check out his paper here, on UNIX-archeology: http://works.bepress.com/warren_toomey/1/

<nitpick> plural of Unix: Unices </nitpick>

No. It's root is not Latin.